«Sull’IA un Piano e una Zes per favorire gli investimenti»

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the greatest revolution of the contemporary era, impacting work, businesses, and society. It can bring about rapid quality improvements in our enterprises, especially small ones, according to Maria Anghileri, president of Young Entrepreneurs at Confindustria. Italy must overcome this challenge. The adoption of AI could increase labor productivity by over one percentage point annually – a percentage crucial for a country like Italy that needs to regain growth.

AI will be the focus of the Capri conference opening on Friday: "StrategIA. The future is an human enterprise." AI can enhance our capabilities, but it remains an human choice on how to use them – not a choice between man and machine, but rather deciding what to entrust to AI, uniting artificial intelligence and entrepreneurial intelligence.

The reality in Italy is that small enterprises struggle to implement AI due to cost and training issues. Italy has established an AI Strategy that must now be implemented with concrete and targeted actions. Our proposal is an "AI Adoption Act," an action plan putting research, incentives, and infrastructure in place with a coordination board to guide interventions for AI adoption and development in Italy.

An ecosystem must be created to support companies adopting AI, as seen in the road show organized by Young Entrepreneurs alongside Alberto Tripi, Confindustria's special advisor on AI. While there are many cases of excellence, coordination is lacking. Above all, skills must be invested in, with investments in schools, universities, and continuous worker training.

Aiding processes and investing in digitalization is also necessary. The adoption of AI often presents a complex path for small enterprises, which lack sufficient resources for deep AI adoption, leading to genuine business transformation. How to activate the investments needed? Our proposal, to be launched at Capri, is the creation of Zes-IA to channel public and private AI investments, including specific financial tools for start-ups and innovative enterprises.

Investments will be made through a simplified channel, building on the successful model of Zes- single in the South. Various application areas have been identified, including manufacturing, sustainable mobility, life science. Confindustria has conducted an analysis of virtuous cases of AI application, and over 200 cases have been mapped across the territory.

It is extremely important to disseminate best practices, showing entrepreneurs what has already been achieved and with what results. It is crucial to realize that enterprises currently utilize AI mainly for warehouse efficiency and predictive maintenance, impacting productivity. Above all, the Physical IA challenges must be addressed, where Italy can take the lead.

We should not chase the United States in producing large models but build and apply AI in sectors where we already excel and export globally, such as mechanics, mechatronics, and pharma. Making these products even smarter can increase their added value. The government is preparing the budget law, and some measures should already be included in the budget.

Energy is the first crucial theme, even for supporting AI development, which is energy-intensive by nature. The consumption of data centers exemplifies this. Increasing energy production and making it competitive in cost are factors of both industrial capacity and technological development. Turning our attention to the younger generation, we hope our proposal for a Stock Exchange for Entrepreneurship can soon be implemented.

Similar exchanges exist in other European countries like Germany. A young entrepreneur starting out has no income, so this exchange should be available to them for up to twelve months. Salary issues must also be addressed, as the only way to retain young people is through competitive salaries. Our generation of entrepreneurs is particularly sensitive to this theme, and we are doing everything possible to achieve it.

Various proposals are being made to increase purchasing power for the young, with our Irpef allowance for those under 35 being a key measure. A decreasing exemption in the first five years, up to a maximum of 50,000 euros of income, from 100% in the first year to 20% in the fifth. This could mean an additional thousand euros per month in the first year of work.

It is an investment in the future that needs coverage, but we believe it is an investment in our country's future.